Chapter 11 – What Is Real?

January 5 2002 – Silver Hills, WA

Eric Myers sat in the driver's seat of a Silver Guardians jeep waiting impatiently for his partner to emerge. He tapped the steering wheel a couple of times before sounding the horn loudly. About a minute later the passenger door opened and Wes stepped inside. He was wearing a standard issue Silver Guardians uniform teamed with a pair of dark glasses, "Alright I heard you the first time", Wes groaned, "and try not to make so much noise".

"Maybe if you hadn't gotten so drunk last night, you wouldn't have a hangover", Eric joked. "Cheer up, I managed to assign us to the Turtle Cove Highway, not exciting ever happens there".

The jeep pulled away from Guardian Headquarters and trundled down the road. The route they would be patrolling linked Silver Hills and the city of Turtle Cove. The nearby city was about an hour away and had recently signed up with the newly expanded Silver Guardians.

As the journey continued, Wes relaxed into his seat and began to reflect on the last few months. Barely a month after Alex broke the news that his friends from the future would be staying, the team finally managed to arrest Ransik. The leader of the mutant resistance surrendered to Jen after accidently injuring his daughter. Alex himself returned to the year 2001 and took Ransik, Nadria and the other prisoners back to the thirty first century. After a near death experience, Eric had finally accepted the friendship of the others.

With Ransik back behind bars, their attention turned towards what to do next. Mr Collins had offered them all roles in the Silver Guardians and they quickly accepted. The organisation was expanding to cover all of Washington state so extra help was needed. Wes was appointed co-leader of the Guardians with Eric but for the time being, the others were stuck on desk duty. Mr Collins had pulled some strings and set up their false identities but everyone thought the best course of action was to keep them out the limelight for a while, at least until they had a chance to full integrate with the twenty first century.

With all of the rangers now official Time Force officers, it enabled them to declare themselves part of the Silver Guardians. They claimed they had been part of the law enforcement agency since its introduction. Technically Mr Collins had filed a contract when he tried to employ them a few months ago so all it took was for them to retrospectively sign the contracts. Thanks to some financial persuasion from Mr Collins, it looked like they had signed the contracts before Hexagon, making the ranger organisations one null and void.

Once the organisation got wind of this, an immediate legal challenge had been made. Without any proof to the contrary, it was highly likely that the Silver Guardians would win the case. Hexagon had the backing of INET but how much the company would be willing to spend fighting the case was questionable. It was likely that Mr Collins and BioLab would pay a hefty amount of compensation to make the case disappear.

On a personal level Wes had moved back in with his father. As there was plenty of room he also offered his home to the other rangers as well. The Clock Tower and Eric's condo had been destroyed during the final stages of the war against Ransik and it would take some time to find somewhere else to live. The red and pink ranger's were still together and as pay back, they had started a pool with the other Guardians for which one of the ranger's would be the next to get together.

Last night was Jen's twenty second birthday and as promised, Wes had thrown her the party of a lifetime. Somehow the red ranger had gotten into a drinking contest with Lucas, one that he had lost badly, leading him to believe that the blue ranger had some kind of immunity to alcohol. Before stumbling to bed he noticed that Katie and Trip were getting very cosy in a dark corner of the Mansion, "I'm telling you Eric I saw them kissing", he said to his friend.

"You know the rules", the Quantum Ranger replied, "it has to be witnessed by at least two people before the money can be paid out".

"You're just trying to rig the vote because you know what the odds are on you winning", Wes snorted.

"Ouch, that hurt my feelings", Eric took a hand off the wheel and clutched his chest.

Wes lightly patted Eric's arm, "Oh Eric we've already established that you don't have any feelings". Wes chuckled at his own joke and even Eric cracked a small smile, "You never know maybe we'll find someone out here for you".

Eric snorted, "Yeah right, pulling someone over for speeding, great way to meet a woman". He paused and looked into the distance, frowning in the process.

"That was fast", Wes said but he stopped when he caught a glimpse of what Eric was looking at. A station wagon had crashed off the road and was bent around a tree. Smoke was pouring out the front of the vehicle, "Quickly pull over", he added.

The jeep pulled up behind the crashed car and the pair immediately hurried to the scene. It had rolled down an embankment before hitting a tree. The hood of the car was completely bent out of shape and the roof had collapsed around the windshield. Wes and Eric slid down the bank and looked inside the car. There was a man bleeding heavily from the head slumped over the wheel of the car. In the front passenger seat was a woman, however, the pair could immediately tell by the position of her head and neck that she hadn't survived. Looking into the back they saw a boy no older than eleven, "Jesus Christ what a mess", Eric sighed, "try and get the doors open".

Wes pulled hard but none of the door would open, "Guess the child locks have jammed on", he called out. Suddenly he saw some movement in the back, "Eric, I think the kid's alive".

"Right, stand back", Eric called out and summoned his Quantum Defender.

"Woah what the hell are you doing?" Wes exclaimed.

"This is the quickest way, do you trust me?" Almost immediately Wes nodded and stepped back. Eric placed his weapon into Sword Mode and sliced through the roof of the vehicle. The pair grabbed one side of the roof each and moved it off the top of the car, giving them easy access to the family. The Quantum Ranger reached inside and checked the pulse of the man. He sighed and looked grimly over at Wes before shaking his head.

"Poor kid", Wes sighed, "I'll call Jen and get her to run the plates. Can you call dispatch and get an ambulance here". Eric nodded and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. The red ranger did the same and took a deep breath, he remembered that Jen's parents had died in exactly the same way. This wasn't going to be an easy call.

Silver Guardians HQ

Sitting behind a desk wasn't the way that Jen planned on spending her time in the twenty first century. She was a highly trained Time Force Officer and an extremely capable detective but until her fake identification worked its way into the system, she was stuck behind a computer. The others would normally be in the office with her but she had given them the day off, calling it her birthday gift to them. Despite the work boredom, she couldn't be happier in the year 2002. Things with Wes were great and hopefully they would have enough to get a place of their own soon. She did occasionally wonder what life would be like if she had to return to the year 3000 but those thoughts were gradually fading away. Her daydreaming was halted when the phone rang and she grabbed it almost immediately, "Silver Guardians office".

"Hey Jen", Wes began and almost immediately the pink ranger knew something was wrong, "I need you to run some plates and get some background info".

"No problem Wes", she paused for a moment, "is everything alright?"

There was silence on the line before Wes spoke, "We came across a crashed car with three occupants. The two adults are dead but there's a young kid who appeared to be alright". Jen froze as memories of her parent's accident began to come flooding back, "This can wait if it's going to bring back bad memories, I'm sure Circuit can help".

"No it's fine", Jen said with a shaky voice, "what's the reg number?" It took her a few minutes to find what she wanted, she was still getting used to the primitive computers of 2002, "The car's registered to a David Quinn from Seattle", she stated, "according to his medical record he's married, I'm sending the pictures to your morpher".

She hung on the line as Wes compared the file pictures with the two occupants of the car, "Yeah it's them", he said sadly, "any next of kin to complete a formal identification?"

"Doesn't look like it", she replied, "both of their parents are deceased and there's no record of any siblings".

"This just gets better for the kid", Wes sighed, "this is their child right?"

"Hang on, I'm still trying to work this database", Jen said and tried to find the correct field, "here we go we've got a record of one child, an eleven year old boy by the name of...", Jen's voice trailed off as she saw the child's name, "Brandon".

"Thanks Jen", Wes paused and the sound of sirens could be heard in the background, "the ambulance is here but we'll talk later, love you Jen".

"Yeah love you too", Jen absently replied and continued to stare at the name. She remembered that Alex had mentioned the name Brandon and how it would be important in the future. Something in her gut was telling her that this boy was the one he was talking about. Not wasting another second, she grabbed her jacket and ran out of the office.

Silver Hills General

After arriving at hospital, Brandon was diagnosed with a broken leg and a severe concussion. The doctor said he was extremely lucky but the two Silver Guardians disagreed. The kid was now an orphan and once he was healthy enough, he would probably disappear into the care system. The doctor had broken the news about his parents and the youngster was understandably devastated. He was given some painkillers and soon he was sound asleep.

Wes and Eric hung around outside his room, they had given a statement to the state Police a few minutes ago and were about to leave when Mr Collins appeared, "Wes, Eric what are you doing here?"

"Brought in an RTA victim", Wes replied and pointed at Brandon's room, "Both his parents were killed but he survived".

"Such a waste", Mr Collins sighed, "I've got a meeting with the hospital administration, I'll cover his medical treatment".

"Thanks Dad", Wes nodded, "won't bring his parents back though". He glanced behind his father and was surprised to see Jen stepped out the elevator, "Hey Jen this is a surprise", he greeted his girlfriend.

"Yeah I just had to see Brandon", she replied and glanced into the room, "I'm glad you're here Mr Collins, that'll save me having to go through this twice".

"Are you going to make sense any time soon?" Eric asked impatiently.

Ignoring Eric's comment Jen asked, "Is there a quiet spot where we can talk?" The men looked confused but it didn't take them too long to find an empty room. Once inside Jen told them about the message Alex gave her before leaving in the Time Ship.

Eric looked extremely sceptical, "Do you know how many Brandon's there are in the world, let along the States? What makes you so sure this is the one your ex was talking about?"

"I'm not sure", she sighed, "I've just got this feeling", she paused briefly, "maybe it's because both our parents died in similar circumstances that I feel some kind of affinity towards him".

"That's all well and good", Wes began, "but there's not much we can do, he's still a minor and without any family he'll go straight into foster care".

Jen bit her lip and thought about this for a few moments until an idea hit her, "What if we adopt him?"

"Us?" Wes exclaimed.

"You work quick Wes, dating a few months and you already have a kid", Eric joked.

"I hardly think this is the best time for jokes Eric", Mr Collins chastised the Quantum Ranger, "but he is right, no one would let you two adopt a child. You've not been in a relationship long enough and the minute they dig into Jen's background, they'll know something's up". He paused for a moment before looking towards the pink ranger, "Do you really believe that this child is the one Alex referred to?"

Jen nodded, "I do".

"Then there's only one thing for it", Mr Collins began, "I'll look into adopting Brandon myself".

"You'd really do that Dad?" Wes asked.

"It's not like I'm inexperienced in the area", his father replied, "I've got a good track record of being a single father and I have a stable income. I'll make some calls and see what I do but I can't promise anything".

Mr Collins left for his meeting soon after that, leaving Wes, Eric and Jen alone to check in on Brandon one more time. Jen wished that Alex could've been more specific about what role this mysterious Brandon would play in the future but she was sure that this child was the one her former fiancée had told her about. Wes and Eric trusted the pink ranger's judgement but only time would tell if she was right. The future for the Time Force Rangers suddenly looked a lot different than it did just a few hours ago.

THE END

A/N – And scene. So now we've met Brandon (kind of), we'll see him again in the future, just in what capacity? Our time with the Time Force crew is up for now but they will make a cameo appearance in the next story of the series. We're moving on to Wild Force, specifically my own version of Forever Red. The story will be called Train Of Consequences and it probably won't be out for at least a month so keep an eye out or set up an author alert to ensure that you don't miss out.